PESHAWAR, Aug 12: The NWFP government has informed the Peshawar High Court that a Russian man arrested last month is being detained at Dera Ismail Khan prison on the orders of the North Waziristan Agency's administration.

The additional advocate-general, Pir Liaqat, informed a two- member bench of the high court on Wednesday that the NWFP police had not arrested the man, Mohammad Abid Ayaz alias Ismael.

He, however, said that the government did not know anything about the detention of Mohammad Nasir, Ismael's brother-in-law and a Pakistani. A habeas corpus petition had been filed by Abid Khan, Nasir's brother, stating that both Nasir and Ismael had been picked up by the Bannu police along with personnel of an intelligence agency on July 10.

The bench, comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, put the deputy attorney-general on notice and fixed Aug 19 for the case's next hearing.

The petitioner's counsel, Qazi Mohammad Anwer, requested the court to seek a written reply to the petition to bring on record the statement given by the additional advocate-general.

Two officials of the Bannu police station, Bashir Khan and Mir Qayaz, appeared before the court and informed that they had not arrested the two detainees. They informed the court that one of the detainee, Nasir Khan, was wanted in a case and they had raided his public call office, but could not find him.

Mr Anwer contended that the detainees were picked in front of a large number of people and there were many witnesses to the incident, adding that the police had also taken away Rs150,000 from the PCO, but the money was later handed over to his relatives.

He said that the detainees were picked on July 10. The petitioner's counsel contended that the federal government should be inquired about the detainees' where abouts. Earlier, when the bench was hearing another case, Qazi Mohammad Anwer drew the court's attention towards the case and said that habeas corpus petitions were of emergency nature and it should be disposed of at the earliest.

Mr Anwer said the petition had been fixed for hearing after two weeks, adding that even now it had been fixed on serial No15 and it was not known if it could be heard on Wednesday. The court took up the case out of turn.